Other Stuff-NEW!
February 2006 Wings
2/2/2006
Today I received notification in the mail from Vans that my wings have been shipped. They were sent out on 1/30/06 via ABF freight, so I should be getting a call in the next day or two from them for delivery!! I may be building again in the next week or so!!
2/6/2006
The wing kit has arrived!
My dad came over to help unload the two 200 pound boxes. The driver helped as well, and he did have a hand truck to aid with the skins box.
So there's the boxes full of $$$ airplane parts! Wiley had to give his paw of approval before I could proceed.
This is the beginning of the inventory process. I started on it today, but Brit is gonna help me do the rest tomorrow night. There's A LOT of stuff in those boxes! The shipping was a little higher than I was hoping at $291, but that still isn't bad considering it came 2/3 the way across the country, and gas is so expensive.
2/7/2006
More inventory today...but with the help of my wife, we finished it!! Now I just need to get organized in the shop, and I'll begin the process of constructing a set of wings!
There is SO MUCH STUFF to account for, I thought it would never end! Nice expressions doofus! You can see Wiley was so very enthused that we were working in this, and NOT playing with him...
2/8/2006
Still no work officially started tonight, but I did get the shop organized. The parts are more or less organized, but the hardware still needs to be put away. Sorry, no pics tonight.
2/11/2006
Still yet to actually start on the wings, but I did get all of the hardware inventoried, and put away. I should get a good start on the spar tomorrow. For now, here's a pic of where I spent two hours of organization today.
2/12/2006
Well, I finally started my wings today! I started by setting up the right spar on the table so I can countersink the tank skin platenuts.
There is a gap between the spar web/flange, and the spar reinforcement bars that I covered with electrical tape. Several builders have had problems with painters tape and regular masking tape leaving sticky glue behind. I talked with my friend John Sanizzaro (-7 builder) about the tape, and he suggested to not worry about it and to blow it out with air after finishing. I thought of one thing before just going at it...electrical tape might work. Well, it worked great, but I didn't leave it on very long. I'm sure if it were warmed up quite a bit, it would leave behind some glue...
Then I drilled the holes for the rivets to #40 and for the #8 screws to #19. Then I countersunk for the rivets to sit flush in the top flange. Didn't get a pic in-between here, but I cleco'd the platenuts in place, and then riveted the other side. There are several methods out there to countersink the middle hole for the #8 screw. Some have built jigs, but from what I've read, and after emailing back and forth with another -7 builder Brad Oliver, I decided to just use Vans method of installing the platenuts, and then using the platenut as a centering hole for the countersink.
Then I removed all the clecos holding the other side of the platenut, and riveted it in place.
I would've kept going today, but I don't have my #19 countersink yet. Should be here tomorrow from Cleveland Aircraft Tools.
I'm finding out that the plans are much more vague at this stage, but still very good. The blueprints are relied on heavily for understanding, which is good, but the empennage was spelled out for you. I'll get used to it, but I hear that the fuselage plans are even worse!
2.25 hours
I also had some help from a friend in solving my air compressor needs. Rather than buying a new one, or taking a chance on another ebay purchase, he has indefinitely lent me one of his air compressors. It has plenty of capacity for what I need right now. Here it is...
2/13/2006
Not much to report tonight. I flipped the spar over to countersink for the rivets on the bottom so I don't have to adjust the microstop again. Basically a repeat of work from last night, but I didn't set any rivets. The platenuts are cleco'd in place and the rivets are installed but not set.
Don't ya just love how those countersinks look!!!??
A note on the compressor I got over the weekend...it leaks. I'm having a welder look at it tomorrow to see if it's worth fixing.
1.0 hour
2/15/2006
No pics tonight...nothing new to show really. I just set the rivets for the platenuts to spar for the skins, and the inspections plates on the bottom of the spar.
0.75 hours
2/18/2006
It is SO cold here! I don't think it made it out of the single digits today! Anyway, it took a long time to warm the shop to 40 degrees, so I didn't get as much done as I thought I would. I did get my new air compressor up and running. I bought a 33 gallon Craftsman that'll do pretty much anything I ask of it. Take a look at my new tools page for the compressor story if you haven't heard it already.
So after breaking the motor in, I started on the left spar platenuts this afternoon. Really nothing new to speak of, other than the fact that I can now use my air drill all the time! That is big news for me! Here's one pic from today's progress.
1.75 hours
2/19/2006
Today I finished the countersinks for the rivets for the platenuts, and finished riveting those in place on the left spar. Then I switched back to the right spar to reset the rivets that weren't fully set. I didn't even think about this until the left side rivets were going in...I should have used the thin washer under the set in the squeezer on the right side when those were being set, but I didn't. So I went back and set them to the correct shop head size. Then I set up the microstop for the #8 screw countersinks and began work on those on the bottom right spar. This takes some time, and wears me out!!
This is a pic ala Brad Oliver (he has the same pic on his site, so yes, I copied his idea). In one of the issues of the RVator from last year, the proper size was given for the #8 countersink to be .365-.375. My caliper only has two digits, so I went for the middle.
One side down, three to go...
2.75 hours
2/20/2006
No pics tonight because I've been doing the same thing for several days now with the countersinking for #8 screw dimples. I did the top right spar, deburred those holes, then switched to the left spar top and bottom and deburred those holes.
1.75 hours
2/21/2006
I started tonight by smoothing the countersinks on the bottom left spar flange from last night with my deburring tool. There was a small amount of room left for a tiny bit of smoothing. They are much better now, and are still within limits. Then I dug through my parts and found the inspection plates W-822PP. These needed deburring around the edges. Did that, then drilled the holes to #28 for the #6 screw and deburred those. Had to stop because I don't have a #6 dimple die. I'll borrow that from work tomorrow.
1.0 hour
2/23/2006
I started tonight by drilling the surrounding holes on the inspection plates W822-PP to #19 for the #6 screws (is the numbering system making any sense to you? cuz it's not to me!). I forgot last night that they were larger than the spar attachment holes (#28). Then deburred the holes again. Then I dimpled all six of the inspection plates with their corresponding dimple die. Here's the stack of inspection plates.
Then I set up the microstop countersink to do the holes in the left and right spar to accept the #6 screw dimple in the inspection plate. No pic of that. I then hand countersunk the holes in the spar web W-706C for the platenut that gets riveted there. The countersink is done on the aft portion of the spar so the vertical doubler sits flush against the spar.
The left pic is the aft and the right is the front of the spar. This was repeated for the left side.
The next thing to do is mask and prime the spar flanges to cover the removed metal where the countersinks went in. I'm gonna try and get to this tomorrow, if not, Saturday. I decided to go ahead and move them from the table to the wing stands to free up some space to work on the tie downs.
I just got a quick start on the tie downs, and called it a night. I'm tired, and I need to take the tie downs to work to tap the ends for the eye bolt threads. Here's a pic of the spacers I cut from the AL bar on my band saw. I think I need a new blade for it. It took forever to cut these!
These are just rough cut in the pic. I did smooth them out on the scotchbrite wheel, and that's as far as I got tonight.
3.25 hours
2/26/2006
This weekend chewed me up and spit me out! I decided to build a sound box around my compressor because it's a noisy sucker. I won't go into the whole story, but suffice it to say, it didn't go as planned. I did finish it up today, and I'm happy with it. You can definitely still hear it, but a conversation can be had while it's running and that's all I wanted. Here's a couple of pics-
I bought some cheap 1/2" CDX plywood and used some bed top eggshell foam I had. It's stapled to the walls and the top of the box. I purposely made it much larger than it needed to be to hopefully keep it from overheating. I'll put a digital thermometer in there when it gets warmer outside. I built it up off the floor about 5 1/2" to let air move around in there. This also allows me to drain the tank.
In order to adjust the air outlet pressure, I cut a small door to get my arm in there to twist the knob. I do need a flashlight to see the dial, but it's not an inconvenience.
On to wing building...on Friday at work, I tapped the tie down attach plates for the eye bolts that will be installed.
Today I started the spot priming on the spars where the anodizing was removed in the countersinking process. I masked off the areas that I didn't want primer to overspray with electricians tape and paper towels...
...and shot with the self-etching primer. I thought about alodining the holes, but this method seemed easier. The priming part was, the masking off part was not...what a pain the butt. Turned out nice!
I did have to do some touch ups on the #6 screw countersinks because I forgot to drill those to #28's before I installed the platenuts and primed 'em. I used a Q-tip and some primer sprayed in to the cap to do that.
With those sitting to dry, I went back to working on the tie downs. I'm gonna have to cut another spacer because my fly cutter decided to eat the first one I was working on to cut out the lightening holes. I'm going to take the others to work to cut 'em there. I did get the first hole drilled in the tie down housing and cleco'd it in place to drill the other attach holes.
It was a pretty frustrating weekend, and I didn't get nearly as far as I thought I would. That's the way it goes!
3.25 hours
2/27/2006
Today at work, I drilled the lightening holes in the spacers with a hole saw. It worked much better than the fly cutter. I think the fly cutter works great for larger holes, but the smaller ones set the counterweight too far out, and it makes the drill press vibrate really bad, and the results are just as would be expected...really bad. The hole saw worked great, but I was very skeptical to begin with.
At home, I drilled the 3/16 holes through the spacers and tie down ring housing using the spar as a drill guide. The tape I used left a nice area of adhesive behind to clean up. Use electricians tape on anodized surfaces.
Then I deburred all the holes after completing the other side. After the holes were deburred, I cleco'd the platenuts to the housing and spacers to drill the rivet holes. The platenuts attach to the face of the housing, and the rivets only go through the spacers, not through the spar. This allows the housing and spacers to be removed if necessary for a repair.
This is a neat contraption all cleco'd up! I took it all apart to deburr, and countersink the spacer for the rivet to sit flush. But, that'll have to wait 'til tomorrow.
2.5 hours
2/28/2005
Another month draws to a close...I started the evening by countersinking the spacers for the 426-7 rivets, and then primed the parts. For some reason, my self etching primer took much longer to dry tonight, but I'm pretty sure it's the cooler temperature. The spacers and tie down housing are cleco'd together to rivet the platenuts on.
Here's a shot of the riveted tie down assembly's-
The primer left the 3/16th holes to small to get the bolts in, so I had to re-drill to clean 'em out, and help the fitting a little. First, I installed the outer bolts, washers, and nuts and torque'd them to 30 in-lbs. I learned something today about torque-ing nuts with nylon inserst. You have to add the friction drag torque to the final value to get the overall torque setting. In this case, it took 7 in-lbs to move the nut down the bolt. The value range for 10-32 nuts is 20-25 in-lbs. So, I added 7 to the middle of the range to come up with 30 in-lbs. With those in nice and snug, I installed the bolts with the aileron bellcrank in to the platenut, and torque'd those down. I'll recheck each nut before closing up, and put torque seal on 'em to let me know they are done.
The aileron bellcranks are mounted on the rear of the spar, and the tie downs on the front.
February is done.
2.5 hours
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